


Thank You

by rockwell_psycho



Category: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Light Angst, POV Jason Dixon, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 22:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15982148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockwell_psycho/pseuds/rockwell_psycho
Summary: A little drabble based on one of my favorite scenes from the movie.





	Thank You

  


\- Hey, Dixon.

Jason turns around, looking at Mildred Hayes questioningly. Everything was already said, it seems. But…

\- Thank you.

That’s all. Just two very simple words and Dixon feels taken aback. Frozen in place, he blinks stupidly, realizing that he has no idea how to react. It was absolutely unexpected, especially from her.  He tries to remember when he heard these words in his address last time and can’t. Maybe it was his own fault. He knows very well that he’s a bit of dick sometimes. Sometimes even more than just a bit. Much more. He feels guilty about it, but he just can do nothing about this habit. It’s been with him for too long. Since he was a kid.

Dixon remembers very clearly that time he came home from school weeping about some classmates making fun of him. Jason was never super bright at school and children are evil… He remembers his dad saying  _“For Christ’s sake, stop crying like a goddamn faggot, Jason. You’re a man or what?”_  He didn’t hit him and he didn’t even raise his voice. But he said it with such disdain that Jason learnt very well that being soft is bad. Being soft is for pussies and faggots. Real men don’t cry and don’t show weakness or compassion. So he learnt to hide his softness and learnt to be rude. But still that soft side of him kept showing up from time to time and Dixon hated himself for that.

That was one of the reasons he beat the crap out of Red Welby and threw him out of the window. After crying desperately on Cedric’s shoulder, Dixon felt blinding rage overwhelming him. He was mad at this whole goddamn world which was so unfair, he was mad that Chief Willoughby was gone and he could do nothing about it, he was mad at those freaking billboards and he also was mad at himself for being weak and helpless. He had to prove it to himself that he’s a man, not a pussy. Throwing Welby out of the window didn’t help much though. Only gave him a sense of guilt that he tried to push as deeper as possible into the back of his mind until it came out when he suddenly saw Welby in the hospital.

Jason always wanted to be a real man, like his dad, or like his favorite comic book characters. He became a cop partly because of that. Cops and comics superheroes have a lot in common, actually. They wear uniform, they look strong and brutal, and they fight crime, solve mysteries and save lives. But… Being a cop in a small town is quite far from being a superhero. But still, he loved to imagine that to himself. He secretly kept a bunch of stuff for collecting evidence in his bathroom and sometimes imagined using it for his own investigation, being a really cool detective like those guys from TV-shows his Momma watches so often. But that time he really had to use them, he didn’t really think of superheroes. And he totally didn’t feel like a cool detective, covered in blood and dirt, sitting on the floor because his legs could barely hold him. But he knew that he just had to do  _something_. At least in memory of Bill Willoughby. Dixon remembers him struggling hard to solve that case and God knows he hated Mildred Hayes for being so unfair towards him. He doesn’t hate her now though. Even after she set the police station on fire. It obviously was her. Dixon may not be super bright, but he isn’t dumb either.

But surprisingly, he can understand her. He understands that blinding rage that you can hardly handle, and he understands that guilt and helplessness she probably feels. And as she nods at him with a barely perceptible smile on the corners of her lips, he senses she probably understands him too.

He nods back at her with a crooked smile on his disfigured face and leaves.

_“Thank you”._

These words are so simple, but so incredibly needed. 

Jason Dixon feels grateful for them.


End file.
